My Weight Loss Journey: Six Months Later

If you’ve been following my blog since the very beginning, you might have had a moment where you asked yourself “Whatever happened to Marc’s Weight Loss Journey posts?” This is actually a very good question. Although I haven’t talked about it all in recent memory, the pursuit of better fitness, eating, and well-being hasn’t been too far from my mind. I’d be the first to admit that things have changed quite a bit since this winter. I am no longer as regimented about running everyday and I can’t say I am eating quite as healthy as I did back then either. A lot of adjustments had to be made on my part since I landed a full-time office job in April. It took some time to incorporate my new lifestyle into a full time job, but I am proud to say that I feel like I did it. Today I want to tell you how I made that adjustment and what I’ve learned over the past six months. Despite all of the challenges that were thrown at me, I am proud to say that I was able to keep my journey afloat through it all.

Making The Adjustments

Transitioning back to work after spending a few months at home was tough in and of itself. However, the idea of going into an office with a cafeteria and lots of vending machines was something that scared me a little. I also work in a career that requires you to sit for the majority of the day. These factors haven’t been a good mix for me over the first several years of my career. I knew that I was feeling different about my habits early in the year, but had no idea if I’d be able to maintain the mental discipline to keep it up in that environment.

I am proud to say that I have successfully made the adjustments to my diet that I needed to keep up what I started in January!

Fortunately, when it comes to this point, I surprised the hell out of myself as time went by. I’ll be the first to admit that I did give in to the cafeteria pizza for the first few months. I never have an easy time passing up a can of soda in order to re-energize myself. However, regardless of how I got it (packed or not packed), I never stopped eating fruit. Instead of opting for junk, I have always chosen to create a cup of fruit instead. I’ve also packed a delicious salad and sandwich for every lunch I’ve packed. I am a creature of habit so at this point I am used to the routine I’ve developed. I don’t think about having candy, chips, or anything else. The food I pack is the food I eat.

Overcoming Weird Injuries

If I’ve learned one thing this year it’s that I am not quite as young as I used to be. I don’t view myself as being “old” but my body is definitely letting me know that I’m not in my twenties anymore. For reasons I don’t understand, I wound up with a pretty puffy knee for about a month. I must have tweaked it while running around the countryside of Western Maryland. I also injured my elbow while hitting a few golf balls around at Top Golf (Yes, this happened while I was working on the piece I wrote about my experience at Top Golf. You can read that blog here!). Both injuries slowed me down quite a bit. Especially the elbow injury. For reasons unbeknownst to me, my elbow nagged at me for months before it flared up during Memorial Day Weekend. Although I recovered from this injury well before the end of June, I allowed it to keep me from going for a run like I used to. After dealing with these injuries, I think I decided that I needed to find another way to get in shape. Unfortunately I also learned during my downtime that I need exercise for much more than simply losing a few pounds.

The Effects Of Not Exercising

If you know me pretty well you’ll know that I’m usually a pretty even keel guy. However, I’ve been through a lot in my 39 plus years on this planet. At this point, I think some of those things have caught up to me a little bit. I’ve noticed in recent years that I tend to deal with random bouts of anxiety. I’m not really sure if that’s what it is, but I don’t know how else to define it. They tend to happen at the most random moments. Some incidents are pretty minor while others bother me a little bit more. I noticed myself going through a lot of stuff prior to the start of the new year. However, thanks to all of the exercise I’ve been doing, I’ve noticed that these incidents have decreased significantly which is awesome. However, after a few weeks of not exercising I noticed that this stuff started to come back again. For that reason alone I knew I had to get back on the horse and start some kind of exercise routine again.

I don’t know how long this hallway is, but I can confirm that you will lose a few pounds if you take a few laps around here everyday.

After suffering some very annoying injuries while doing more rigorous activities, I decided to start off by walking through my employers extremely long atrium a few times per day. It started off as me just taking a lap or two in order to stretch my legs and get back into shape. However, it quickly turned into me trying to see how many steps and miles I could log in a given day. Soon enough I found myself logging anywhere between 7,000-10,000 steps per day. This would equal approximately 3-6 miles of walking. I don’t know if I look silly to my fellow colleagues or not, but I tend to push myself pretty hard when I take these walks. For the record, there are many people in the building who do the same thing, but don’t necessarily push themselves like I am (although there are a few who do, haha!). Over the past few months I’ve noticed that my dedication to this routine has paid off. Clothes that I’ve had for years are fitting me better than ever and I am feeling about as good, if not better than I did this winter. As long as my workload doesn’t become overwhelming, I plan to continue this routine everyday.

It hasn’t been unusual for me to put up these types of numbers just by walking this summer. I am totally rocking it!

What The Scale Says Isn’t Everything

If you read my previous “Weight Loss Journey” pieces you will know that I put an emphasis on what my weight was. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not everything. To be honest, I haven’t weighed myself in quite some time. I’m kind of afraid it’s going to tell me I am somewhere in the 240s. This is not a reflection of the progress I feel like I’ve made. Currently, I am probably the thinnest I’ve been in quite a few years. Thankfully I never allowed my weight to get too high, but I definitely needed to lose a few pounds. Getting the results I received from the doctor last December certainly woke me up as well. At this point, what I see when I look in the mirror is what counts. Seeing my clothes fit me so much better is encouraging. The way I feel everyday plus the fact that my habits helped me to overcome some unusual anxiety trends tells me everything I need to know. I feel and look like the person I think I should be. This is what matters to me the most. My advice is to avoid getting too wrapped up in what the scale says. Just focus on how you feel about yourself and stay committed to your routines. That’s what really matter in my opinion.

About Me

Hi, I’m Marc. Welcome to my world!

I am a television production professional who decided to dust off their story telling and writing skills and use it to share my point of view on the world.

Over the past few years i’ve gotten married, bought a house, travelled the country, and have tried a lot of new things. This has added a lot of flavor to the unique perspective I have on life due to some of the obstacles i’ve had to overcome. This alone should give me plenty to write about and keep you entertained.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoy the journey with me!

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